Flaws and Miracles

Episode 4: Flaws and Miracles

From the sidelines, Elara watched Arthur intently. She, too, wanted to see how the "hidden master" she had just met would guide Rowan.

All eyes were glued to Arthur. If he didn't speak up soon, he would become the academy's biggest laughingstock. He was just about to stammer out some pathetic excuse when, suddenly, the list of flaws written in that spectral book flooded his mind.

He had no idea if the information was accurate or absolute nonsense, but right now, he didn't even have an excuse prepared. Cornered, he took a deep breath, puffed out his chest, and declared, "Your stance is riddled with flaws. To be exact, there are twelve major errors."

"Ha... Haha! Did he just say twelve flaws? Did I hear that right?"

"This guy is a comedian!"

"That was the Weasel Punch! It's the most foundational sequence taught across the entire continent. After thousands of years of refinement by generations of grandmasters, it has been perfected to minimize flaws. It might not be an ultimate technique, but it's certainly not 'riddled with errors.' Twelve flaws? Is he delusional?"

"Liar!"

"He obviously doesn't know anything, so he's just spouting random numbers!"

At first, the crowd had just been murmuring, but the moment Arthur opened his mouth, the dining hall erupted into roaring laughter.

The Weasel Punch was basic cultivation 101. It wasn't overwhelmingly powerful, but because experts had spent millennia perfecting it, it had the fewest technical flaws of any introductory art. Some even called it the "Flawless Primer."

"Finding twelve flaws in a stance like that... what a complete joke!"

"Forget his zero-mark evaluation—even the grandmaster who originally created the stance wouldn't be able to find twelve flaws in it today!"

"Oh? Professor Sterling, you're truly a hidden expert! Twelve flaws in the Weasel Punch? Please, enlighten us."

Vance hadn't expected Arthur to dig his own grave so spectacularly. Seeing the perfect opportunity, he pushed forward, eager to humiliate Arthur completely. This was the moment to turn his own momentum into a crushing victory.

Despite the mockery, Arthur didn't let a single drop of panic show on his face. How was he supposed to know Rowan would perform the most famous, universally perfected stance in existence? The original Arthur definitely knew, but since his memories were still fuzzy and merging, the new Arthur had drawn a blank.

But he was a modern man from a world overflowing with information! Embarrassing him wouldn't be that easy. Mustering every ounce of his bravado, he sneered, "You don't believe me? It's not that I refuse to guide him, but rather that none of you have the capacity to comprehend my guidance. And since you refuse to follow my instructions... I bear no responsibility for this farce!"

He turned to his new disciple. "Elara, let's go. A challenge like this is beneath us."

"Hold it right there! We concede to your 'wisdom.' Keep talking," Vance barked, immediately blocking Arthur's path.

Vance was convinced Arthur had intentionally exaggerated the flaws so he could act insulted by the crowd's reaction and use it as an excuse to flee. Vance wasn't about to let a golden opportunity like this slip away.

"Well..."

Realizing he was completely trapped, Arthur knew he had no choice but to rely on the mysterious book. *If I'm going to die, I might as well die trying!*

He mentally flipped open the spectral book and scanned the list of flaws again. His eyes landed on the final entry. Looking up at Rowan, he commanded, "You executed the sequence favoring your right arm. Take my advice: perform the entire sequence again, but mirror it. Execute the final strike with your left arm. Then, punch the wall."

*I really hope this cheat code works...* he prayed silently. Either way, he had no other escape route.

"His left arm?"

"Is that even considered guidance?"

"What a joke! Everyone's non-dominant arm is weaker. If he forces the technique through his left arm, won't it completely ruin the flow of the stance?"

The students stared at Arthur in disbelief.

It was common sense that the non-dominant arm was naturally weaker. Rowan was no exception. Yet, this "instructor" was telling him to lead with his weaker side? What kind of twisted logic was that?

Vance smirked, mentally declaring victory. "Rowan, do as Professor Sterling says."

Rowan had just enrolled under Vance, who knew from a quick assessment that the boy heavily favored his right side. If Rowan struck with his left hand, the impact wouldn't even break 30 kilograms of force.

When a student’s power drops from 62kg to 30kg after receiving "expert guidance," Arthur's reputation wouldn't just be ruined—it would be obliterated. Let's see how he shows his face at the academy after this!

"Yes, sir," Rowan agreed with a dismissive chuckle, resetting his stance.

He knew his left arm was his weak point. A left-handed Weasel Punch? Ridiculous. He had practiced this sequence since childhood, always leading with the right. Still, adapting the form to the left side wasn't terribly difficult.

As he moved, spiritual energy gathered, though it felt noticeably weaker than before.

Arthur was sweating profusely now. *"What if my cheat code is defective?"*

Other protagonists got ancient ancestral spirits or overpowered magical artifacts that worked flawlessly. He got... books. If the book was wrong, he was definitely getting fired, or worse, beaten up by an angry mob.

"Hiyah!"

Rowan completed the sequence, stepping up to the testing wall and throwing a solid left hook.

*BANG!*

The numbers on the display flickered wildly before settling.

"1... Ha! I thought it would barely hit 30..."

Seeing the first digit was a '1', Vance began to laugh. But before he could finish his sentence, the laughter died in his throat, choking him. He stared at the screen, unable to believe his eyes.

"123?!"

"123 kilograms?!"

His first strike was 62kg, and the second was 123kg. It had doubled. A literal 100% increase in power!

Was this real? Even the academy's top-ranked instructors couldn't trigger a 100% power boost with a single piece of advice!

Rowan was equally paralyzed. *"D... Did I do that?"* He stared blankly at his own fist, then at the wall.

He knew he favored his right side, but he had never imagined his left arm harbored such explosive, dormant power. Doubling his strength... he wouldn't have dared to dream of such a result.

The surrounding students were completely dumbstruck. Arthur, on the other hand, had to suppress the urge to scream in joy and do a victory dance.

*The library's information is real!*

To be able to instantly identify a person's hidden talents and fatal flaws, and then know exactly how to correct them... for someone surviving in a dangerous new world, this cheat was an absolute godsend!

Arthur let out a booming, arrogant laugh. "So, what do you say now? Your guidance yielded a 20% increase. Mine yielded a 100% increase. Professor Vance, do you have any further commentary?"

Vance's face turned violently red, opening and closing his mouth like a suffocating fish. "I..."

He had initiated this challenge to humiliate Arthur, yet he was the one being publicly humiliated. Gritting his teeth, he pulled a token from his pocket. He pricked his finger, letting a drop of blood fall onto it to break the seal, and tossed it to Rowan.

"Rowan, I am releasing you from my tutelage. You are free to take Professor Sterling as your master."

Having done so, Vance glared at Arthur with pure venom. "Don't get too arrogant, Arthur. You got lucky this time. But the next time we clash, I will crush you."

With a dramatic swish of his robes, Vance turned and stormed out of the dining hall.

Not only had he lost massive face, but he had also lost a student. Losing to Arthur was worse than slapping his own face in public. Losing to any other instructor was one thing, but losing to the zero-mark laughingstock...

"Professor... Professor!" Seeing Vance leave, Rowan lowered his head in dismay.

Yes, Arthur's single piece of advice had vastly improved his punch, but deep down, Rowan agreed with the crowd. It was a fluke. A blind guess. He firmly believed Arthur actually knew nothing about combat arts.

"Excellent! You are now my disciple. Hurry up, hand over your ID card."

Arthur couldn't care less about what Rowan was thinking. He was still riding the high of winning a student in a duel. He proudly tossed his own token toward the boy.

Although Rowan deeply resented having Arthur as his teacher, he knew he had to respect the results of an official Guidance Competition. If he refused to take Arthur as his master now, his reputation for insubordination would guarantee no other instructor would ever take him. Grudgingly, he pricked his finger and sealed the blood pact with Arthur's token.

"Your training begins tomorrow," Arthur declared grandly.

Having secured the ID, Arthur didn't feel the need to linger. He turned and strolled out of the dining hall, head held high.

Back in the safety of his classroom, Arthur closed his eyes, his consciousness diving back into the magnificent Library of Heaven's Path. He needed to understand how his cheat actually worked.

After some experimentation, the activation trigger became clear: *Whenever someone executed a martial technique or demonstrated their abilities in front of him, the library would automatically compile all their flaws, hidden talents, and physical data into a customized book.*

"I hit the jackpot." With this library, he could instantly know the deepest secrets and weaknesses of anyone he met. The days of scoring a zero were gone forever.

His heart swelled with immense relief and excitement. For the first time since arriving in this terrifying world, he looked forward to the future.

"Did you hear? Professor Vance and Professor Sterling just had a Guidance Competition! Yeah, the Sterling who scored a zero!"

"A competition? Then Sterling definitely got destroyed!"

"That's the crazy part—he didn't! Sterling won! He just gave some bizarre, backward advice, and Vance's student's punching power instantly shot up by 100%!"

"100%? From a single pointer? Even Professor Sterling... wait, no, even the top instructors couldn't pull that off! You're making this up!"

"How could it be a lie? Half the dining hall saw it with their own eyes!"

Those who had witnessed the miracle firsthand were enthusiastically spreading the tale across the campus.

"A 100% increase? Please. He just got incredibly lucky. A blind cat found a dead mouse. There's no way he actually has that level of insight!"

The speaker was Renuka, the daughter of the Mayor of Karimanagar, the third-largest city in the nation. Raised in luxury and educated in elite prep schools, she had enrolled in this academy with one singular goal: to become the disciple of the famous Professor Sterling. To her, hearing that some disgraced, zero-mark fraud had supposedly outperformed top-tier instructors was utterly absurd. It was only natural she refused to believe a word of it.

"Lucky? I highly doubt someone can accidentally trigger a 100% power increase just on 'luck,'" another student seated nearby argued defensively.

"Do you really think I don't know who Arthur Sterling is? If it wasn't blind luck, what else could it be? Don't forget, this is the same instructor who scored a literal zero and was nearly expelled! What kind of hidden abilities could trash like that possibly possess? If you don't believe me, watch—I'll go expose his fraud right now!"

Renuka was spoiled, headstrong, and entirely used to getting her own way. Hearing people praise an instructor she deemed "garbage" deeply irritated her, and she wasn't about to let the rumors stand.

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